Journey Home’s Sustainable Ecosystem Offers a True Path Out of Homelessness
- fadnis3
- Dec 10, 2025
- 3 min read
By Jack Saias
Hartford, December 10, 2025
As the polar vortex brings frigid winter conditions to Connecticut, Journey Home, a non-profit that provides housing support services to the unhoused in Hartford and surrounding areas, prepares to save lives. The organization that operates all the cold weather programs in this region recently received over $1 million from the Connecticut Department of Housing to bolster homelessness efforts and support services in the capital region.
With an alarming 45 percent increase in the rate
of unsheltered homelessness over the past year in the state, Journey Home’s early intervention program aims to go beyond just providing temporary shelter to people in need. The organization’s Coordinated Access Network (CAN) is meticulously designed to activate a system that can rapidly assess and prioritize the eligibility of individuals with immediate housing needs. This includes taking proactive measures through early mediation or small cash infusions to help people avoid homelessness.
“Our approach is focussed on making homelessness rarer and briefer,” said Adriana Negrone, Journey Home’s Coordinated Homeless Prevention Manager. She explains that the key to making a complex program like CAN work is to develop an ecosystem where shelters, outreach teams, and diversion programs can all work together to prevent homelessness collectively.
Journey Home’s role is to problem-solve, and hold critical contracts when needed, all while creating new strategies that prevents households and individuals from losing their homes under unfortunate circumstances. The work is not glamorous however, it is often call-by-call, bed-by-bed, lease-by-lease incrementalism, all leading to the gradual future of re-housing or rehabilitation.
A typical day at the non-profit begins with the team meeting with its shelter partners to review bed availability, new intakes, and urgent health or safety concerns related to individuals in their care. During these daily meetings, outreach staff ensure that information moves quickly and that the next best step for each person is clear. Adriana explained, “They start the day aligned, then stay flexible for whatever the system throws at us.”
The model’s strength is its refusal to let people fall between organizational cracks. Placements often depend on factors like time unsheltered, medical risk, hospitalizations, pregnancy, and age, with youth prioritized separately. “The damaging misconception is that there is a “type” of person who becomes homeless,” added Negrone.
“Homelessness is not an inevitable outcome of personal failure, It is a predictable outcome of systems under stress. These systems include high rents, limited support, and historically fragmented responses,” said Michelle Lipar, a coordinator for the Hand Up program. Hand Up is a furniture bank created by the non-profit to support those who are starting over after falling on hard times.
“The hardest work often begins after someone receives the keys to their new home,” said Negrone. In homelessness prevention, sustaining housing requires steady case management and practical support. “These aren’t typical rental situations. We advocate with property owners and bring resources to the table. We also need the broader system as well, including behavioral health benefits along with income support,” Negrone added.
In 2024, Journey Home launched the encampment-to-housing program with a goal of housing 200 individuals over a two year period. It is a rapid effort that engages a specific encampment and, within four to five weeks, moves people directly into their own apartments. Another is a reentry diversion partnership that begins support 14 days before individuals are discharged from incarceration or transitional housing, rather than waiting until they are five days from literal homelessness.
“When we operate as one network, we can match people to the right help at the right time” Michelle added. As time goes on, the work continues- fueling trucks, training partners, refining data, and answering calls from those in need. The CAN model shows that when communities share responsibility, the path from crisis to home becomes clearer for all. Journey Home's biggest strength is its refusal to let people fall between organizational cracks.
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